Repair work on subway tunnels damaged during Superstorm Sandy will disrupt service for riders on the A, C, and F lines later this year, the MTA said.
The MTA will move to fix the Cranberry tunnel on the A and C lines and the Rutgers tunnel on the F line once the R line’s Montague tunnel is expected to be back up Oct. 2, according to officials. There is no hard timeline for the repair work on the tunnels, which was first reported by NY1.
A silver lining for riders is that the A, C and F train tunnels are expected to only be out of commission on weekends, instead of a full 24-hour closure like the Montague tunnel.
“Right now the plan is that these would be weekend closures, not a full shutdown,” MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said.
Ortiz added that the repair project is in an early phase and that bids are going out this year, with a preliminary budget of $50 million.
During Superstorm Sandy, nine of the transit system’s 14 underwater tunnels were damaged; the Montague and Greenpoint tunnels were hit the worst. The Montague tunnel has been out since August.
“It’s a one off, so we’re learning an awful lot about what can be done, what can’t be done and how we can do it better,” MTA CEO Thomas Prendergast told reporters at last week’s MTA board meeting.
While work continues on the Montague tunnel through the summer, the G train tube will undergo another round of repairs. This time, the Greenpoint tube will be closed for five straight weeks beginning July 26 and back by Labor Day. Work is also being done on the Steinway tube on the No. 7 line as well.
The MTA has said the system needs $4.8 billion to bring the system back to where it was before Sandy struck.
